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| Our stall at the Galloway Show |
As indicated in my last post I attended the Galloway Country Fair over the weekend of the 17th & 18th August representing both Borderlines and AAPGAI, along with my good friend and colleague Glyn Freeman as one of the demonstrators at the show. The weather was a bit kinder to us on the Sunday than it was on the Saturday, which helped to draw in the crowds on day two, and in addition to delivering eight demonstrations between us over the duration of the weekend, we also offered a casting clinic for those wishing to indulge in tuition sessions throughout each day. We shared the marquee with the Nith District Salmon Fishery Board and the Nith Catchment Fishery Trust. (See the Website: Here) as Jim Henderson of the NDSFB is one of the directors for Borderlines.
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| Fly Tying on the Stall |
As expected, the Eden rose again throughout that weekend, which ensured that we did not miss out too much on the fishing front, however, reports of good runs of Grilse entering the system continued to reach me via my mobile, which I witnessed first hand upon my return. There has also been one or two Grilse caught over the last couple of weeks, along with some better fish too, but for the amount of fish we have seen passing through the lower beats, the numbers caught still remain quite low in comparison.
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| Ralph & Uschi |
Up to now most of the salmon anglers I have taken out on the river have been more interested in the casting tuition side of things in preparation for the latter part of the season, although during a tuition and fishing session with John Dunn on the lower river, whilst putting his much improved skills into practise, he did have two chances throughout the day, one of them offering him a really good draw to his fly, but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. That said, it is good to have further confirmation that they are definitely in attendance, especially as we are now rapidly approaching the most productive time of the year on the Eden for the salmon angler. "Watch this space".
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| Ralph with a small Brown Trout |
Just over a week ago now, I had the good fortune to spend some time with a really nice couple from Germany, Ralph and Uschi, on their first trip to the lake district. Following a fly casting session, with the single handed rods, we spent the day on a local Stillwater fishing for Rainbow and blue trout, whilst the river was still a little too high for brown trout fishing, and in a joint effort, Ralph played and landed a nice Blue Trout (Rainbow Trout variant) for their tea. We did however manage to spend the last day on the river, and although conditions were still not ideal, Ralph managed to catch a couple of small trout on a weighted nymph.
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| Sam's First Fish |
I was also out with Sam Rickett, who came along with his wife to be, to learn how to cast a fly for the first time, and at the end of the session I put on one of my favourite dry flies, the Klinkhammer, and following two near misses his new found skills came to fruition as he managed to hook and land his first ever fish which turned out to be a cracking grayling of around one and a half pounds. "Nice one Sam"!!!
As water levels recede, the trout and grayling fishing is also improving, but due to a distinct lack of any prolonged surface activity, despite the heavy fall of black gnats on the water we have seen over the past few days, the majority of the fish are still coming to sub surface offerings, and only yesterday we had some great results whilst adopting this approach.
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| Another to the nymph |
Although we continue to fish for trout throughout September and grayling throughout the winter months, over the next few weeks I have some serious salmon anglers coming out with me for some prime time fishing, so water permitting, we should hopefully have an interesting tale or two to tell over this period, and if it is anything like last year when we had salmon up to 25lb (22lb and 25lb to the same rod) it could be very interesting. "Here's hoping".
